A LOT has changed in Australia since 1996, when the prime minister of the day, the Liberal Party's John Howard, decried what he called a "black arm-band view of history" - criticising a belief that "most Australian history since 1788 has been little more than a disgraceful story of imperialism, racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination".
Among Australia's First Nation peoples, the annual anniversary of the First Fleet's flag-raising ceremony on January 26, 1788, was never a day for celebration.
It was Invasion Day, or Survival Day.
Even after the resounding, 90-per-cent, "yes" vote in the 1967 referendum that elevated the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations to full citizenship, that same majority of Australians was happy to leave many other things the way they were.
Mr Howard - who wore his conservatism on his sleeve - had no time for any reappraisal of the past, even if it flowed from the pens of such esteemed historians as Manning Clark and Henry Reynolds.
But years of subsequent polling have revealed a steady shift in public attitudes, to the point where support for the "old" Australia Day is probably a minority position.
There will be those who say tradition dictates on such an occasion, and that the push against the national holiday is another example of "woke cancel culture".
"Would the United States drop July 4 as Independence Day?" they ask.
At the same time, however, it is little surprise that support for Australia Day is lowest among the young. Shaped by an education system that teaches far more about Indigenous culture than their parents were ever exposed to, they see January 26 from both perspectives.
And with such cultural and community leaders as Newcastle's Citizen of the Year, Nathan Towney, taking the reconciliation message to a wider audience, support for an official reappraisal will almost certainly continue to grow.
In the meantime, the fate of Australia Day is not something to be considered in isolation.
Sometime this year or next, voters will go to the polls on a referendum to enable a Constitutionally recognised Indigenous Voice to parliament. If we are looking for a new national day to celebrate in perpetuity, a date central to this giant leap in reconciliation may well prove an appropriate choice.
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